Birth Control

While shadowing my mentor physician assistant Emma Cook at the family practice, I watched her do a pap-smear on a young lady. After that we began to talk about pap-smears and she informed me that after the first time you have sexual intercourse no matter what age you need to get a pap-smear within one year. We then began to discuss the different birth controls, and I asked her about patient confidentiality with parents and minors. She informed me that patients as young as twelve years old can go into the clinic and request birth control, without their parents content. Also is the parent goes to ask if their child had been prescribed birth control, they are not allowed to release that information to them.

My mentor informed me that the birth control pill needs to be taken every single day, at the same time every day to keep the women's hormone levels the same. This is the most common type of birth control.

This is the second most common type of birth control, it is birth control in an injection form. Women only need to get the injection once every three months.